INTERIOR NOMADISM
Temporal Inhabitations
IIT College of Architecture – Cloud Studio, Fall 2016/Spring 2017
Lluís Ortega.email: lortega3@iit.edu
In coordination with Universidad Torcuato di Tella Buenos Aires
… The nomad has a territory; he follows customary paths; he goes from one point to another; he is
not ignorant of points (water points, dwelling points, assembly points, etc.). But the question is what in
nomad life is a principle and what is only a consequence. To begin with, although the points determine
paths, they are strictly subordinated to the paths they determine, the reverse happens with the sedentary. The water point is reached only in order to be left behind; every point is a relay and exists only as
a relay. A path is always between two points, but the in-between has taken on all the consistency and
enjoys both an autonomy and a direction of its own. The life of the nomad is the intermezzo.1
1 Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia p 380. U. of Minessota Press
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
interior Nomadism
The idea of home has been traditionally related to belonging and stability. The hyper accelerated mobility of current modes of living is challenging those notions. Large portions of
the population are moving and resettling on a regular basis, within a time span that varies
from hours to years. This nomadic condition is impacting current metropolises and requires
rethinking the regular approaches to the design of housing and the discussion about communities. Conventional notions of public and private, locals and foreigners are, more than
ever, under stress. The new nomadism is not homogeneous. It includes differentiated profiles:
tourists of diverse types, travelers, professionals, temporary family- and education-related
displacements, refugees, consumers of urban facilities and so on. That social and programmatic complexity is expanding the architectural types that deal with habitation. Conventional
hotels and motels, housing and houses are complemented with temporary shared spaces,
subletting all or part of properties, micro temporary renting spaces, temporary cities, moving
megastructures and so on. This expanded range of temporary inhabitation posits questions
of conventions and traditions related to privacy and private property, but it also opens up opportunities for architectural speculation and typological innovation. If a certain stability of the
urban fabric is necessary for its economic, social, ecological and political viability, it seems
clear that the metropolis needs to incorporate more differentiation to allocate the diverse inhabitation modes that current society has shaped.
In many contemporary cities, there are growing conflicts created by the mismatch between
the speed of change in inhabitation modes and the slow condition of a housing fabric that is
incapable of dealing with those modes. Local authorities are still operating with policies and
housing infrastructure that are mainly capable of dealing with slow changes. In the meantime,
fast and short-term modes of inhabitation are left in the hands of private operators. That gap
generates processes of gentrification, economic stress and social conflict. Immediate reactions from public authorities try to preserve existing social and urban fabrics, gaining time to
rethink new planning strategies to mediate the new nomadism with urban plans that redirect
it into a more sustainable urban force.
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
In our studio we will develop a proto-city that deals with an interiorized urban context hosting
a mix of inhabiting infrastructure and common spaces: housing, hotels, motels, shared inhabiting infrastructure, short-term inhabiting support, conventional housing, and public facilities.
The hotel type unfolds from a highly constrained set of efficiencies and introduces interiorized
landscapes and urbanscapes. The traditional list of hotel types – Downtown Hotels, Suburban
Hotels and Motels, Resorts, Convention Hotels, Conference Centers, Residential and Condominium Hotels, Suite Hotels, Super-Luxury Hotels, Mega Hotels, Mixed-Use Hotels, Casino
Hotels – will be analyzed and complemented with other modes of inhabitation that expand its
performance both in shorter term modes of stability and towards more stable forms of community. This new city will be developed as a prototype that responds to a double condition of
evaluation: on the one hand, it will need to declare its efficiencies and limitations; and on the
other, it will need to unfold an urban collective landscape that supports the cultural complexity
of the new society.
Since the theorization of junk space, there has been an increased acceptance of giving up
on the architecture of the interior and working on the envelope as an isolated system for developing architecture. However, the increased interior nature of our built environment and the
activation of preservation policies are forcing the discipline to question this retreat. Reclaiming
the interior cannot be a naive movement; rather it opens up an understanding of interiority
as a new territory for experimentation and for unfolding the techniques and arguments developed during the last decade. In our studio, so-called generic space will be replaced by a
highly differentiated space, trading roles with the exterior that becomes generic, where redundant patterns are actualized based on specific programs, urban performances and visual and
formal agencies from the present day.
Contemporary architectural practice is a relational exercise. In our increasingly complex global environment, we need transformative and operative capabilities in order to design projects
that integrate political, economic, social, and energy aspects and, above all, mediate their
actions in cultural terms. Formal and material organizations configure the basic conditions
for deploying the intensities in a non-predesignated way. We can move beyond the analytical
comprehension of the modern subject and the cynicism of the postmodern subject toward
an environment where the architect is a designer of systems that activate new deployments.
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
The architectural opportunities opened up by these conditions will be the focus of our investigation. We will embrace the notion of interior nomadism and we will experiment within a conceptual framework that situates itself in a proto-representational framework of performativity.
The design of the processes of differentiation and articulation of interior qualities will be directional, but open to feedback loops with the potential to constantly redefine its targets through
the recognition of new opportunities. These moments of recognition, based on an explicit
charge of meaning, will serve as disruptions that rearticulate the autonomy of the system.
Our research posits the digital realm as a change in direction that is shaping a particular state
of mind and sensibility, where cybernetics are reappearing to provide the tools, the terminology and the condition of an artifice for intuitions that might appear, naturalizing the sensible.
We will explore historic disciplinary material to abstract operative diagrams of the creation of
voids, we will design our protocols for the assemblage of second-order systems, and we will
experiment by carving existing large structures in order to introduce new notions of urban interiority. The notion of urban interior will be approached as an alternative to collage cities and
the accumulation of programs by designing voids that exhaust the differentiation of specific
categories.
The prototype will be developed in an extreme situation of interiority. This interiorized condition will force each proposal to define its urban qualification clearly, through operations of differentiation. For grounding our proposals, we will analyze and diagram historic and contemporary hotel types and hosting protocols as well as a site: Panama, a geostrategical location
in the Americas that is economically grounded in global mobility.
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
GENERAL STRUCTURE OF WORK AND TIMELINE
Students will work in groups of two or maximum three people.
During Fall Semester, each group will focus on developing an interior urban prototype in
two stages. The first one will deal with only one type of hotel with all its variations. This will
allow the group to become specialized in the modes of efficiency and to develop a model
of urban interior that launches a particular vision and organization of the collective. The
second stage will develop a more complex and hybrid condition of the proto-city by mixing and expanding the hosting timeline and social profile with other typological modes or
degrees. The emerging collective space resultant from the metasystem will organize and
reflect that urban complexity.
The project will be based on precise and intentional diagrams of existing types of both
inhabitation organizations and urbanscapes and landscapes.
During Spring Semester, our work will focus on Panama. Students will develop a proposal
for the site that actualizes the architectural potential of the proto-city developed during the
first semester. During this semester, similar research will be conducted by a group of students at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Regular online exchange
and reviews will be held between the groups. By the end of the semester a publication of
all the projects will be edited as a manual for hosting contemporary nomadism.
Students are highly encouraged to enroll in the studio for both semesters.
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Atlas of Urban
Interiors
The Design of a
Proto Interior
Fall 2016
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Diagrams of Urban Interiority
Stage one
In every process of systematization, we find a design of the protocols that structure its performance. In this first exercise, we will be working by studying, modeling and rearticulating
typological material that exemplifies temporary inhabitation. We will focus on very basic architectural cases that organize interiors based on simple efficient systems and on interior urban
types.
Each observation will be motivated by a particular interest; we will be scripting the basic rules
of organization and growth.
This systematic documentation and scripting of models will become a library for the whole
group to work with. The library should not be understood as an accumulation of documents
to refer to once in a while, but rather as a design tool. Similar to scripting libraries, each of
the modes should have its own efficiency but, at the same time, it should be capable of being
integrated into more complex systems based on subsystems.
Students will be working in groups of two or three. Each group will choose one case from the
list that will be provided the first day of class or an approved alternative. The models should
operate based on the design of the protocol of constraints that differentiates the interior.
Steps to follow and deliverables:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Documentation of the model to study.
For each system, definition and identification of the main criteria that drives it.
Design of the protocol.
Test of possible growth and proliferation.
Edition of Atlas, Part I.
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Nomadic Interionomy
Stage Two
In this stage, we will design proto-interiors based on the assemblage of subsystems. The logic
of the assemblage will require local operations of continuities that extend beyond mechanical
integrity, providing the resulting design with zones of recognition and autonomy as well as
zones of hybridity, interpolation, and morphing. The performance and hierarchies of the new
system are based on proportion and negotiation, on the adjustment and refinement of its
perpetual in-between condition. Our new proto-interiors will operate in a precise relationship
of qualities and intensities, which requires constant levels of actualization by cultural charging
based on operatives of qualification and recognition.
To design our prototypes each group will work with its original interior urban type model and
will merge it with one nomadic urban scenario diagram defining its ranges and limits within
two sets: a given spherical volume that is populated with a prototypical modern space field;
and a generic cubical volume with external information (orientation, openings, access).
Steps to follow and deliverables:
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Selection of a second system (nomadic urban scenario) and integration with the original model in a system of second order.
Test of possible growth and proliferation.
3-D print models of the original device and the new model (sphere). These models should recognize as many iterations of the outcomes as necessary for the documen
tation of the interior qualities.
Proliferation and occupation of the second volume (given generic cube). Diagrams, drawings and model.
Full documentation (portfolio) of the interior produced by the new device. It should define all the ranges and possible variations of the diagram. Edition of Atlas, Part II.
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Schedule
Week 1
August 22th: Opening Conference
August 24th: Deskcrits Step 1
August 26th: Deskcrits Step 1
Week2
August 29st: Deskcrits Step 2
August 31nd: Deskcrits Step 2
Sep 2th: Deskcrits Step 2
Week3
Sep 5th: Sep 7th: Sep 9th: Labor Day. No Class
Deskcrits Step 2
Pinup Steps 1 and 2
Week 4
Sep 12th: Sep 14th: Sep 16th: Deskcrits Step 3
Deskcrits Step 3
Deskcrits Step 3
Week 5
Sep 19nd: Sep 21th: Sep 23th: Pinup Step 3
Deskcrits Step 4
Deskcrits Step 4
Week 6
Sep 26th: Sep 28th: Sep 30nd: Deskcrits Step 4
Deskcrits Step 4
Deskcrits Step 4
Week 7
Oct 3th: Oct 5th: Oct 7th: Deskcrits Step 5
Deskcrits Step 5
Pinup Step 5
Week 8
Oct 10th: Oct 12th: Oct 14th: Fall Break Day. No Class
Deskcrits pre-midterm
MIDTERM
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Week 9 MCHAP Week.
Oct 17th: Deskcrits Step 6
Oct 19nd: Deskcrits Step 6
Oct 21th: Deskcrits Step 6
Week 10
Oct 24th: Oct 26th: Oct 28st: Deskcrits Step 6
Pinup Step 6
Deskcrits Step 7
Week 11
Oct 31rd: Nov 2nd: Nov 4th: Deskcrits Step 7
Deskcrits Step 7
Pinup Step 2
Week 12
Nov 7th: Nov 9th: Nov 11th: Deskcrits Step 8
Deskcrits Step 8
Deskcrits Step 8
Week 13
Nov 14th: Nov 16th: Nov 18st: Deskcrits Steps 8
Pinup Step 8
Deskcrits Step 9
Week 14
Nov 21th: Nov 23th: Nov 25th: Deskcrits Step 9
Thanks Giving Break
Thanks Giving Break
Week 15
Nov 28th: Nov 30rd: Dec 2nd: Deskcrits Step 9, 10
Deskcrits Step 10
FINAL
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Interionomy
panamA bridges
Spring 2017
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Stage three
The final stage of our research will test the proto-interiors in a case study. We will develop an
interior urban proposal for one post-infrastructural large building that bridges the Panama
Canal. During our field trip, we will visit Panama and the canal to better understand a country
whose economy is based on global mobility. Its geographical location plays a key role in the
north-south relationship of the Americas. Our proposal will connect the gap created by the
canal with an offshore city that hosts a nomadic worldwide population.
The proposals will be understood as a set of interiors that make up a larger system of interiority for contemporary nomads. In that sense, we will need to develop an exhaustive documentation of kinds and types. The model of closing optimizing logics is substituted by the
model of proliferation of refinements, contributing to the construction of Interionomy as a new
subfield of Architecture.
During the second part of the semester we will engage in regular online presentations and debates with a group of architecture students from University Torcuato di Tella who will be doing
parallel research on the same topic.
Steps to follow and deliverables:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Diagramming and modeling of infrastructure and proto-urban conditions around the Panama Canal system.
Working model. Test and design a first iteration of the project using your model.
Full documentation (portfolio), final model, complete remaining documents.
Articulation of Interionomy.
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Schedule
Week 1
Jan 09 th: Jan 11th: Jan 13th: Presentation
Deskcrits Step1
Deskcrits Step1
Week2
Jan 16st: Jan 18st: Jan 20rd: Martin Luther King. No classes
Deskcrits Step 1
Deskcrits Step 1
Week3
Jan 23th: Jan 25th: Jan 27th: Deskcrits Step 1
Desckcrits Step 1
Deskcrits Step 1
Week 4
Jan 30st: Jan 01rd: Feb 03th: Deskcrits Step 1
Deskcrits Step 1
Pinup Step 1
Week 5
Feb 06th: Feb 08th: Feb 10th: Deskcrits Step 2
Deskcrits Step 2
Deskcrits Step 2
Week 6
Feb 13th: Feb 15th: Feb 17th: Pinup Step 2
Deskcrits Step 2
Deskcrits Step 2
Week 7
Feb 20nd: Feb 22th: Feb 24th: Deskcrits Step 2
Deskcrits Step 2
MIDTERM
Week 8
Feb 27th: Trip to Panama
March 01nd: Trip to Panama
March 03th: Trip to Panama
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
Week 9
March 6th: March 8th: March 10th: Deskcrits Step 2
Deskcrits Step 2
MIDTERM
Week 10
March 13rd: Spring Break
March 15th: Spring Break
March 17th: Spring Break
Week 11
March 20rd: March 22th: March 24th: Deskcrits Step 3
Deskcrits Step 3
Deskcrits Step 3
Week 11
March 27th: Deskcrits Step 3
March 29st: Deskcrits Step 3
March 31rd: Pinup Step 3
Week 12
Apr 3th: Apr 5th: Apr 7th : Deskcrits Step 3
Deskcrits Step 3
Deskcrits Step 3
Week 13
Apr 10st: Apr 12rd: Apr 14th: Deskcrits Step 3
Deskcrits Step 3
Pinup Step 3
Week 14
Apr 17th: Apr 19nd: Apr 21th: Deskcrits Step 4
Deskcrits Step 4
Deskcrits Step 4
Week 15
Apr 24th : Apr 26nd : Apr 28nd: Deskcrits Step 4
Deskcrits Step 4
FINAL
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ashby, W. Ross., An Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman & Hall, London, 1956
Bateson, Gregory, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, [1972], University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
2000
Bergson, Henri and Mitchell, Arthur, Creative Evolution, [1907], Dover Publications, 1998
Gould, Stephen Jay. “Cabinet Museums: Alive, Alive, O!” Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections
on Natural History. New York: Harmony Books, 1995. 238-47
Koolhaas, Rem, “What Ever Happened to Urbanism?” [1994], en Koolhaas, Rem and
Mau, Bruce, S, M, L, XL, The Monicelli Press, New York, 1995.
—, “The Generic City”, en Koolhaas, Rem y Mau, Bruce, op. cit
.
—, “Junkspace”, October, núm. 100 (Obsolescente: A Special Issue), June 2002.
Salomon, David y Andersen, Paul, The Architecture of Patterns, W. W. Norton & Co.,
Pask, Gordon, “The architectural relevance of cybernetics”, Architectural Design, vol. 7, 6,
Wiley, New York, 1969, pp 494-496
Reichardt, Jasia (ed.), Cybernetic Serendipity. The Computer and the Arts, Studio
International, London, 1968.New York/London, 2010.
Zaera-Polo, Alejandro, The Sniper’s Log. Architectural Chronicles of Generation X,
Actar, Barcelona, 2012
—, “The Politics of the Envelope”, Log #13|14, Fall 2008
Wiener, Norbert, Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the
Machine [1948], The MIT Press, Cambridge (Mass.), 1994
—, Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine,
Willey, New York, 1948
—, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, Da Capo Press,
Boston, 1954.
Links
Students will get a list of Grasshopper tutorial links first day of class
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Only letter grades will be given and these will be based on a curve.
Grades will be issued for each project and these will be based on the following criteria:
1. Conceptual sophistication and critical thinking
2. Sophistication and extent of project investigation and development
3. Sophistication and quality of presentation material (drawings and models)
4. Participation in class and critiques
A final letter grade will be compiled from all assignments
The School policy on grading is attached here:
A
Excellent work that is on time and complete
B
Above average work that is on time and complete
C
Average work that is on time and complete
D
Below average work, late work, or incomplete work
F
Unacceptable work
Please refer to Graduate Bulletin for official IIT university grading policies
It is expected that all students will put considerable time, thought, and effort into their work. However, those factors do not of
themselves guarantee any particular grade. On time and complete work is needed for a grade of A, B, or C, but timeliness and
completeness alone do not constitute or guarantee a passing grade. When the work is on time and complete, quality in both
thought and production are the primary considerations for the grade:
Excellent work – Demonstrates an ability to identify and develop a unique line of inquiry derived from, yet extending, the basic
proposition of the assignment or course. Exceeds the expectations of the faculty and the assignment in the quality of thought
and production.
Above average work – Excels in understanding and development of work relative to assignment scope. Demonstrates an ability
to assess feedback and respond thoughtfully in the further development of the assignment.
Average work – Meets the basic expectations and requirements in terms of assignment scope as outlined in assignments or
stated by the instructor.
Below average work – Does not meet all of the basic expectations and requirements. Does not consistently demonstrate a basic
understanding of primary course objectives and concerns and/or an ability to respond to feedback and guidance by the instructor. Is inconsistent in its production and development, and is frequently late and/or incomplete.
Unacceptable work – Does not meet the majority of basic expectations and requirements. Seldom demonstrates a basic understanding of primary course objectives and concerns and/or an ability to respond to feedback and guidance by the instructor. Is
inconsistent in its production and development, and is consistently late and/or incomplete.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement
Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with documented disabilities. In order to receive accommodations,
students must go through the Center for Disability Resources office. The Center for Disability Resources (CDR) is located in Life
Sciences Room 218, telephone 312 567.5744 or disabilities@iit.edu.
INTERIOR NOMADISM. Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega
CV
Lluís Ortega is PHD Architect by the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), MA
in Philosophy by the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and obtained
his Master of Science (AAD) degree from Columbia University. At
present he is Associate Professor at IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) and Visiting Professor at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella
in Buenos Aires. Previously taught at UIC (University of Illinois at
Chicago), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Universidad
de Alicante, Harvard University and at the Akademie der Bildenden
Künste, Vienna.
He co-founded Sio2Arch (formely f451) in 2000 with Santiago Ibarra, Xavier Osarte and Esther Segura.
He has been responsible of several specialized publications: director of the architectural
magazine Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme (Barcelona, 2003-2005), and editor of the
architectural magazine 2G (Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 2000-2001), Josep Llinàs’s
writings Saques de Esquina (Pre-Textos, Valencia, 2002; with Moisés Puente), Platform GSD
2008 (Actar/Harvard University, Barcelona/Cambridge, 2010) and the reader on digitalization
in architecture La digitalización toma el mando (Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 2009). In
2014 he was Adjunct Curator and main designer of the Spanish Pavillion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. His book Atlas of Suprarural Architecture, with Ciro Najle, a grantee project
of the Graham Foundation, was published in May 2016 by Actar. Currently he is finishing the
manuscrit for his forthcoming book Digitalization Takes Command, awarded by the Graham
Foundation in 2014.
INTERIOR NOMADISM Cloud Studio. Fall 2016/Spring 2017 . Lluís Ortega